Table Of ContentGraphic Medieval History
CASTLES
By Gary Jeffrey & Illustrated by Nick Spender
Crabtree Publishing Company
www.crabtreebooks.com
Crabtree Publishing Company Author and designer: Gary Jeffrey
www.crabtreebooks.com
Illustrator: Nick Spender
1-800-387-7650
Editor: Kathy Middleton
Publishing in Canada Published in the United States
616 Welland Ave. PMB 59051, 350 Fifth Ave. Production coordinator and
St. Catharines, ON 59th Floor,
Prepress technician:
L2M 5V6 New York, NY 10118
Ken Wright
Published in2014 by CRABTREE PUBLISHING COMPANY.
Print coordinator:
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or be transmitted in any form or by Margaret Amy Salter
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of copyright owner. Photo credits:
p5m, David Dixon, p5b, Jonaslange;
p6, ChrisO; p7m, Clem Rutter, p7b,
derek billings; p44m, Humphrey
Copyright © 2013 David West Children’s Books
Bolton; p45t, Jerzy Strzelecki, p45m,
Created and produced by:
Michael Hanselmann, p45b,
David West Children’s Books
PHGCOM; p46, Tequask; p47,
Project development, design, and concept:
Antony McCallumi
David West Children’s Books
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jeffrey, Gary, author Jeffrey, Gary.
Castles / Gary Jeffrey ; illustrator: Nick Spender. Castles / by Gary Jeffrey ; illustrated by Nick Spender.
pages cm. -- (Graphic medieval history)
(Graphic medieval history) Includes index.
Includes index. ISBN 978-0-7787-0396-9 (reinforced library binding : alkaline
Issued in print and electronic formats. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-7787-0402-7 (paperback : alkaline paper) -
ISBN 978-0-7787-0396-9 (bound).--ISBN 978-0-7787-0402-7 - ISBN 978-1-4271-7508-3 (electronic HTML) -- ISBN 978-1-
(pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-4271-7508-3 (html).--ISBN 978-1-4271- 4271-7514-4 (electronic PDF)
7514-4 (pdf) 1. Castles--Europe--Juvenile literature. 2. Middle Ages--
Juvenile literature. I. Spender, Nik, illustrator. II. Title.
1. Château Gaillard (Les Andelys, France)--History--
Juvenile literature. 2. Dover Castle (Dover, England)--History-- UG428.J44 2014
Juvenile literature. 3. Conwy Castle (Conwy, Wales)--History-- 355.4'40940902--dc23
Juvenile literature. 4. Château Gaillard (Les Andelys, France)--
History--Comic books, strips, etc. 5. Dover Castle (Dover, 2014002417
England)--History--Comic books, strips, etc. 6. Conwy Castle
(Conwy, Wales)--History--Comic books, strips, etc. 7. Graphic
novels. I. Spender, Nik, illustrator II. Title. III. Series: Jeffrey,
Gary. Graphic medieval history.
UG428.J45 2014 j725'.1809409022 C2014-900355-2
C2014-900356-0
Contents
4
CASTLE BUILDING
! 6
UNDER SIEGE
THE BREAKING OF
8
CHATEAU GAILLARD 1203
20
THE SIEGE OF DOVER CASTLE 1216
36
EDWARD I CONQUERS WALES 1294
44
CASTLES END
46
GLOSSARY
48
INDEX
Castle Building
Military forts and walled 1
GREAT BRITAIN
towns had existed since
25
ancient times. In the 9th 9
13 10
8
century, when the vast 1471112 POLAND
6
empire of the Franks split
MEDIEVAL CASTLES
4 1. Bamburgh
into smaller territories
2. Caernarfon
called lordships and 3. Carcassonne
FRANCE 4. Château-Gaillard
principalities, private 5. Conwy
6. Dover
landowners started 7. Kenilworth
3 8. Llawharden
building their own castles.
9. Lincoln
10. Malbork
11. Rochester
M B
OTTE AND AILEY
12. Tower of London
13. Warwick
In France during the Middle
14. Windsor
Ages, early castles had a keep,
or tower, built on a raised mound of earth called a motte. The tower
acted as a guardhouse or residence for the lord’s family. Next to the
motte a large, flat yard, or bailey, was built for stables, storerooms, and
other buildings. The entire complex was surrounded with a palisade, or
a fence of wooden stakes, and a ditch to protect against attack. A small
force of permanent soldiers lived there too. However, rot and fire were
the main enemies of motte and baileys.
C K
ASTLE EEP
William of Normandy
conquered England in
1066. The Normans
built their castles all
over Britain and even This 13th-century
rebuilt important drawing shows a
hollow keep.
wooden ones in stone.
The main keep, or donjon, was a
fortress. Some had incredibly thick
walls. However, most castles back then
The massive Norman keep at the
only needed to be strong enough to
Tower of London was William the
Conqueror’s fortress in London. hold off an attack until help arrived.
4
C C
RUSADER ASTLES
From 1099-1272, knights
from Christian lands went
on crusades, or holy wars,
to reclaim Jerusalem—the
site of Jesus Christ’s
tomb—from Muslim
control. Europeans set up
their own states in the
Holy Land and built new,
incredibly strong castles.
Only kings or very rich
Krak des Chevaliers in Syria was built in 1170 by the
religious military orders
wealthy Knights Hospitaller. The castle had concentric
could afford them. lines of defenses, or walls within walls.
Conwy Castle in Wales, in Great
Britain, has a barbican, or fortified
gateway, protecting its west front.
G C
REAT ASTLES
The 11th, 12th, and 13th
centuries were a tumultuous
time in Europe. It was also the
peak of great castle building.
New features appeared such as
A fortified wall of Carcassonne
battlements (the jagged tops
in France shows the wooden
galleries, or machicolations, of castle walls), barbicans
that were built on most (strong gateways), arrow slits
medieval castles.
in walls for archers to safely
shoot, murder holes (holes in
the ceiling for ambushing
attackers), and machicolations
(openings in the floor over a
wall). King Henry II’s fortress
at Dover (see page 20) and
the Welsh castles of Edward I
(see page 36) helped secure
the future of England.
5
Under Siege!
A hostile foreign force
has invaded. The nobles
and their army retreat to
the safety of a castle. The
invaders arrive and set
up camp, then begin the
slow and dangerous
process of trying to break
into the fortress.
A 15th-century painting of a siege shows ladders
for scaling walls and a large defending army. A siege
engine
C A
ASTLE TTACK
The besiegers build
“engines” out of
wood that hurl
rocks against the
Moveable siege towers
castle walls. They
erect towers as firing platforms that
can also be pushed against the
battlements so that troops can storm the tops of the walls. Sappers dig
at the foundations of castle walls to unbalance and
topple stone towers. Heavy
battering rams are forced against
weak points, and flaming arrows
are fired into wooden structures
on or inside the castle. If this fails,
attackers hope to starve the
A shielded battering ram defenders out, before help comes.
Undermining a
C D
ASTLE EFENSE castle tower
Defenders have fewer options than attackers.
Their best weapons include the crossbow—a good long-range
weapon—and boiling oil, which can be poured onto attackers. If
needed, a well-stocked castle with its own well can last out for months.
6
Chateau Gaillard was a strong, highly
advanced English castle built in 1196
to defend Normandy, which at that
time was a duchy of the English
Crown. (See page 8.)
G C S
REAT ASTLE IEGES
In 1215, rebellious nobles
challenged England’s King
John and took control of
Rochester Castle. John himself
laid siege to the fortress and,
after his catapults failed, he
undermined the walls. The
nobles and their men retreated The strategically important site of Rochester
Castle in Kent, England, was besieged three times
to the castle’s massive stone
between 1088 and 1264. The last siege was
keep. John sent men to dig
relieved by Prince Edward (later King Edward I).
beneath a corner tower. They
lit pig fat to burn the mine’s supports away, and toppled the tower.
The traitors retreated further behind a strong inner wall. They still
controlled half the building, but, after a few weeks, they were starved
out—proof that even the strongest castle could be taken eventually.
The longest siege in medieval England took place 60 years later when
forces loyal to Henry III attacked a group of defiant nobles holed up in
Kenilworth Castle, in Warwickshire, England. Deadly missiles were
hurled at the walls, but a flooded, three-sided moat kept the attackers
out until the defenders
ran out of food six
months later.
The imposing ruins of
Kenilworth Castle still stand.
The castle resisted an epic
siege in 1266, during a period
of English civil war.
7
The Breaking of Chateau Gaillard
Late september, 1203, anglo-
normans under the command gaillard was Philip’s last
of english knight roger de obstacle to conquering
lacey were besieged in their of all of normandy.
castle at chateau gaillard, in
east normandy by the forces
of french king philip II. his perrier siege
engines were ready.
at last we will
destroy lionheart’s
stronghold!*
*english king richard I, known as
8
lionheart, had built gaillard.
